Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer hired by Spain to reach Asia in 1491; instead he discovered a continent, and in four voyages explored the West Indies from 1492 to 1502. His discovery resulted in Europeans exploring and settling the Americas, and Columbus became both a symbol of the new world and an iconic hero for the age of exploration.

As conservative historian Wilcomb Washburn explains, if Columbus had not discovered the New World, the process of European discovery might have been very different. Rather than standing as a symbol of inexorable forces, Columbus is better seen as a representative of the spirit of inquiry, Christian religious zeal, and the notable achievements of Western Civilization.[1]

Early career

Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo in Italian; Cristobal Colon in Spanish) was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. His father was a weaver, tavern keeper, and political appointee. Christopher was uneducated; he learned to read and write as an adult. Then he read widely. Genoa was a great seaport for the Mediterranean. He became a sailor and traveled widely in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Sometime in the mid-1470s, he settled in Portugal, joining the colony of Italian merchants in Lisbon, a cosmopolitan city at the center of Portuguese maritime activity in the Atlantic. He married into a prominent family in Lisbon, but his wife died soon after their son, Diego, was born in 1480. Columbus was a master mariner and adventurer, and a devout Catholic who saw religious goals in converting the Asians. He now had connections to the Portuguese court, important ties to Madeira and Porto Santo islands, and at least some wealth.

For centuries, Asia's lucrative commodities, such as spices, had brought European traders overland. That route was now closed and by the 1480s Portugal took the lead in opening ocean routes to Asia, sailing south around Africa into the Indian Ocean, using superb navigational aids they had invented, maps they kept secret, and excellent ships. products directly.

Hearing many tales of legendary Atlantic voyages and rumors of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores, he studied books and maps. Columbus became convinced that Asia could be reached by sailing due west from Europe. Columbus's ideas about the size of the world and a westward route to Asia probably evolved piecemeal. His conjectures were based on discoveries of islands in the Atlantic (the Canaries, the Azores, the Cape Verdes, the Madeiras), rumors of additional islands, findings of unusual plant material and even human bodies drifting in from the western ocean, and by wide reading in academic geography, including Imago mundi (Image of the World) by the French theologian Pierre d' Ailly and the Geographia the ancient scientist Ptolemy.[2]

Port of Palos in Spain; painting by Evaristo Domínguez.

He accepted Marco Polo's erroneous location for Japan-- as 1,500 miles east of China--and Ptolemy's underestimation of the circumference of the Earth. Therefore, he concluded, Japan was about 3,000 miles to the west of Portugal--which was barely within the extreme range of existing ships. In 1484, Columbus sought support for an exploratory voyage from King John II of Portugal, but he was rejected. The Portuguese believed it was too far for their ships.

In 1485 Columbus went to Spain, where he spent seven years trying to get support from Queen Isabella I of Castile. She favored his cause and provided a salary. Once Spain was unified in 1492, Isabella and her husband King Ferdinand of Aragon were ready to fund a major voyage. The moderate cost would be offset by spectacular returns, they figured. They promised to grant Columbus noble status and the titles of admiral, viceroy, and governor-general for any islands or mainland areas he discovered. The office of admiral would give Columbus the right to judge disputes that arose in commercial matters, that of viceroy would make him the personal representative of the monarch, and that of governor-general would enable him to act as supreme civil and military authority.

First Voyage

Isabella furnished him with three ships (The Niña, The Pinta and The Santa Maria). Leaving August 3 1492, from the port of Palos, he sailed for months without sight of land while his crew was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the voyage believing themselves to be sailing towards their deaths; they began plotting mutiny.

October 12, 1492

Finally they came to land in the West Indies (October 12, 1492). When they explored a little they found the natives to be friendly and they found many new things that no European had ever seen before. Columbus thought he had landed in India, so he called the native people "Indians" - a designation which remains common to this very day. As they prepared to return to Spain the Santa Maria ran aground on a coral reef and could not be repaired. Columbus saw this as a sign from God and established a trading outpost he called Navidad (after the Christmas holiday).

However he still had the Nina and Pinta, and so he took most of his crew up the Windward Passage and onward to Spain. The king and queen were amazed by the colorful birds and strange foods that Columbus brought with him. Columbus was then called Admiral.

News of Columbus' discovery spread across Europe with the republication of his Letter of March, 1493

Second Voyage

When Columbus sailed back to the new world in 1493, he found no sign of Navidad or of his crew. It is unknown what became of the crew, but one widely believed theory is the local Indian population grew tired of being harassed for gold and killed the sailors. Columbus then built a new settlement called Isabella (after the queen), then left it in the charge of his brother Diego and went exploring. He was puzzled that his maps of the east did not match with what he had seen. When he reached modern day Cuba he believed that this was the mainland and forced his crew to swear that it was. He also discovered Jamaica shortly afterwards. On his second voyage Columbus was able to sail back exactly to the same place as on his first voyage, despite poor navigating techniques of the time period. Some attribute this fact to divine providence.

Third Voyage

When he returned to Isabella he found it in a state of confusion that he was unable to control. Because there was no gold he sent 500 Indians to Spain as slaves against the will of the king and queen. This brought much ridicule on Columbus. He sailed back to Spain to defend himself and the king and queen refused to furnish him with the necessary ships for continued exploration for three years.

Fourth Voyage

When rumors of the confusion in Isabella reached Spain the king and queen sent Francisco de Bobadilla to investigate. Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his brother in the name of the crown, took charge of Isabella forcefully and sent them back to Spain. Columbus begged for one more chance to explore “Asia”. The monarchs gave him four broken down ships. His fleet was beaten with storms and he was forced to give up his last journey. He started back for Spain, but his ships were on the verge of collapse and he was forced to stay at Jamaica. He sent one of his crew to Isabella in a canoe to get rescue ships. Seven months later the ships came and took him back to Spain.

Death

Santa María de la Rábida, Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, Spain.

Columbus died a prosperous man in Spain at the age of 55. He still believed he had reached Asia at the time. The notion that Columbus died in poverty and relative anonymity is a myth. It is also a myth that Columbus proved that the world was round. Europeans had known for centuries that the world was round. Columbus's disagreement with the experts was that he thought that the Earth was much smaller, and that he had enough supplies to sail to India.

The Memory of Columbus

Columbus has remained since the quest for independence a malleable and durable American symbol. Although ignored during most of the colonial period, he was, during the 1760s-1890s, interpreted and reinterpreted to fit our national character and used to mold a collective identity. This progress can be traced over three periods: as Columbia (an allegorical figure symbolizing liberty); as Columbus (an individual masculine explorer who sanctioned Manifest Destiny); and as Columbianism, a late-19th-century patriotic symbol involving cultural and political hegemony and various ethnic and religious identities. During this evolution of "discovering" Columbus, a significant amount of material culture surfaced in American art, monuments, coinage, and in various civic events. This led to a multiple set of uses of Columbus as a model or official icon by various organizations to help shape their identities. The discovery of Columbus also grew as new methods of communication and the development of various media in the visual arts replaced the oral tradition and elementary school prose of the 18th century. This adaption of Columbus as a national symbol created conflicting contexts for many, such as Protestants ignoring Columbus's Catholicism. All three periods signify steps in the nation's search for self-identity.[3]

Christopher Columbus at the court of the Spanish Catholic Kings by Juan Cordero.

In the 19th century the works of historians Washington Irving, George Bancroft, and William Prescott created the scholarly foundations for American celebration of Columbus's achievements. Irving created a highly romantic description of Columbus's landing in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828). 19th century American painters and graphic artists conjured up romantic images to match those found in the book. The image portrayed in Irving's book and by the artists shows Columbus finding a sparsely populated virgin land inhabited by lightly clothed "savages" to whom he introduced a "superior" culture and the blessings of Christianity. The mythical image also claims that Columbus planted the seeds of future American economic prosperity.

Americans celebrated Columbus's discovery of the New World and built numerous monuments to him in the late 19th century. The city of Columbus, Ohio was established in 1812. In addition, cities and towns, streets and health facilities, libraries, universities, schools, and in modern times sport teams bearing his name are symbols of his American stature. Columbus Day, is a national holiday in the United States, proclaimed so in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, primarily at the behest of Catholics and the fast growing Italian immigrant community who wanted a national holiday of celebration.

By the quincentenary celebration of his discovery in 1992, Columbus stood accused of genocide and ecocide. Columbus Day became controversial in the 1970s, as a matter of white guilt regarding the mistreatment of native Americans. The main accuser was Colorado professor Ward Churchill (who was fired in 2007 for academic misconduct and falsifying history); he compared Columbus to Nazi Holocaust sponsor Heinrich Himmler, pointing to the genocidal outcome of Columbus's brutal practices in the Caribbean.

Columbus did return to Spain with a number of Indian slaves, and that slave labor was used in his quest for gold. Native populations died out primarily because of exposure to new Old World diseases.[4]

Leftist protesters of the 1992 quincentennial celebrations of frequently used the term "genocide" to describe European treatment of the Indians, but they never defined genocide or provided sound evidence that Europeans practiced genocide. Historians should recognize the legitimate emotional source of these complaints, but counsel against the use of moral blackmail by groups who have something to gain from characterizing European treatment of Indians as genocidal. Historians should work to destroy "maleficent myths" about the past and expose complex origins of "current fortunes and misfortunes" without holding the descendants of those who wronged other peoples accountable for the deeds of their ancestors.[5]

Besides the District of Columbia, and the province of British Columbia (Canada), numerous cities are named after Columbus, notably in Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Ohio.